If I Had An Emmy Ballot 2013: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

Part 3 of our journey through the Emmy ballot brings us to Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. As always, Fienberg will attempt to rank the contenders from most likely to least likely to be nominated, throwing in a bunch of preferential wild cards along the way. And, as always, I will pretend that I am an actual Academy member who has a ballot and therefore has to narrow his choices down to six people.

Same rules apply: we are working off of the actual Emmy ballot, so we can't nominate people who didn't submit themselves (like Maisie Williams from "Game of Thrones"), and we have to consider people in the category they submitted themselves for, even if that means supporting actors submitting as leads (Rob Lowe, every year) or vice versa (Amy Schumer submitting herself as supporting for a show that has her name in it). I'm also obviously limiting myself to shows where I watched enough this season to feel comfortable picking names. (I've only seen a couple of "The Middle" episodes this year, for instance, so while I assume Eden Sher was marvelous all year, I can't say it with enough conviction to put her on the list.)

Dan's exhaustive analysis is embedded below (click Launch Gallery to see it), and my picks are coming right up.

Where the first two categories had at least one overwhelming candidate (Michael Cudlitz for drama supporting actor, Monica Potter for drama supporting actress) whom I knew would be on my list no matter what — and whose absence from the real Emmy list would greatly disappoint me — there was nobody in this batch whom I looked at said, "Yes. Her. Absolutely. Everyone get in line behind her." That said, it's a category with a lot of performances I really enjoyed, and where I'd be happy to see the real Emmy voters wander off the beaten path at least a bit.

Then again, one of my favorites in the category is someone who was actually nominated a year ago: Merritt Weverfrom "Nurse Jackie." As I've said before, Wever's warm, infectiously goofy work as Zoey Barkow generally serves as the thing that allows me to accept the show's definition as a comedy. She continued to do excellent work this year as Zoey grew in responsibility as unofficial second-in-command to the new ER chief, at one point making a trip to The Container Store sound like a young girl's erotic journey from Milan to Minsk. She's built up so much residual goodwill on "Jackie" that when she popped up on "New Girl" as Schmidt's college girlfriend, I immediately began pondering a way for her to participate in both series.

Jenna Fischerwas actually nominated for an Emmy for her work in the third season of "The Office," and I thought for sure she was going to win just based on the scene where Pam reacts to Jim asking her out. Instead, she lost to Jaime Pressly from "My Name Is Earl," and never got nominated again. I'd like to see her make the list again for her work in the final season of "The Office," where the best and most interesting material inevitably revolved around the state of Jim and Pam's marriage. It was a largely dramatic arc for Fischer — and one that, unfortunately, brought her into the orbit of Brian the boom mic guy for a few episodes — but a really strong one for her. And the structure of the finale suggested that while Michael Scott was the main character for so long, Pam Beasley was the center of "The Office" universe.

I'd be surprised to see Fischer return to the field after such a long absence, less so to see Jane Krakwoski back on the list. She wasn't nominated last year, but was the three previous years, and there are at least two open slots from last year's list (Kristen Wiig and the late Kathryn Joosten). Jenna Maroney is a character who wasn't always my favorite part of "30 Rock," but that fell more on the part of the writing for her than what the eternally game Krakowski was doing. And she got some really good material in this last season, including her brief period as the most politically powerful person in America, and even in smaller moments like the one in "The Stride of Pride" where Jenna advised Jack to embrace the advantages of getting older. Plus, she got to sing out "TGS" with one last performance of "The Rural Juror." I will never forget you, Jenna Maroney.

Okay, now let's move to the people with no Emmy portfolio. First up: Julie White from "Go On." "Goon" wasn't perfect in its brief life, but White and the writers made Anne — an intimidating lawyer mourning the death of her wife — the show's most delineated, consistently entertaining creation. While the rest of the series could at times lurch from tone to tone, unsure of how to balance a lot of characters of varying degrees of intelligence or reality, White could be inserted into any scene, with any combination of other characters — one of the best episodes involved her hiring her temperamental opposite, Brett Gelman's Mr. K, to play nanny to her children — and make things work.

Aubrey Plazaon "Parks and Recreation" and Busy Philippson "Cougar Town" are both playing characters who young for their ensemble, and who on one hand are extremely immature and on the other wiser than their older counterparts. Like Wever on "Jackie," the most recent seasons let both characters grow a bit — April getting more responsibility in the parks department, Laurie opening up her own business — while still retaining their comic essences, and both Plaza and Philipps did an excellent job of finding that balance.

UPDATE: In shuffling people on and off the list, as I usually do at the end, I didn't realize I'd included seven people rather than six. Consider Elisha Cuthbert the seventh place person, but since I wrote the paragraph, I'm going to leave it in.

Finally, if "Happy Endings" really is dead (and all seems quiet on the "rescued by cable" front), then it would be nice if the show got a bit of Emmy recognition before it's too late, preferably from its breakout performer in Elisha Cuthbert. As always, Cuthbert threw herself into all of Alex Kerkovich's stupidity and ridiculous tics with great gusto. Few performances more consistently put a smile on my face; I'll miss it, and hold out hope that another comedy will find something for her to do.

Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com

Option 2

Option 3

Alan didn't see a lot of Modern Family, he started to really dislike it (he says so in his review of the season finale). I still think it's really strong when it's on its game and the Dunphy kids had a particularly good season, though I did bit expect any of them to pop up in Alan's list. Great call on Jenna Fischer though (I've always loved her on The Office, even when I didn't love the show)....

Did we ever get word on what happened with the Brian story arc on "The Office"? Both you and Dan mention it as though it were some big thing and I remember there being a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth about the producers screwing things up by unnaturally inserting an interloper into the Jim/Pam relationship (admittedly, I was one of the wailers). And then...nothing happened. Brian was in all of four episodes, only two after the fight that got him fired and he was pretty much a non-entity. Did the producers reverse course because of the backlash or because they realized it wasn't working? Or was that their plan all along and we all just made a mountain out of a mole hill?

Both Greg Daniels and Jenna Fischer have claimed that we saw all they filmed of Brian and that they never intended to hint at an affair, but I still can't believe they wasted four episodes in the back stretch of the final season on a plot that ultimately led nowhere. I guess we have to believe them because the episodes were all completed before the first one aired, but it sure seems like an epic fail. I do agree with Alan that Fischer deserves a nomination for her work this season.

I hope Jenna Fischer takes it...even though she really should be submitting in the Lead Actress category. She's hardly the worst offender where stuff like that's concerned, but I did do a double-take when I saw her name here.

I'd put Eden Sher's work on The Middle at the top of any such list - she's the single most glaring omission from the nominations (for me) over the past few years. It's really tremendous work in how over-the-top it can seem without ever becoming hammy or cartoony.

Agreed! Love Eden Sher! Interestingly enough, she's a perennial at the Critics Choice Awards and finally won this year (well, tied, but it seems so Sue-propriate that she tied). Hee speech is on YouTube (it's under a vídeo of Emmy Rossum presenting....)

I'm all for the supporting women of Veep. Anna Chlumsky as Amy -- who in the eighth episode of the second season finally has a breakout moment when she confronts and curses out a TV news director; Sufe Bradshaw as Sue -- huge moment this year in the episode "Hostages" where at a hearing goes from a dull bust to a robust revelatory sensation. These two deserves as much attention as the star of the show.

I love that Veep's creative team is expanding on all the principal characters -- Sue breaking out this year is shocking and exciting. I think she and Jonah may hookup eventually and yes I know her character already has a boyfriend.

I expect maybe 1 or 2 of these names to get nominated. Carly Chaikin is as good if not better than anyone on this list, but for some reason she would be missing from eps altogether this past season. Elisha Cuthbert was great, but her show got cancelled. Sarah Hyland's improvement on MF was exponential, but she's overshadowed by the older women on the cast. Zosia Mamet continues to be the best thing about "Girls". I think the winner should be either Mayim Bialik and Merrit Weaver... that's if Weaver gets nominated, which is no guarantee. I know she was last year, but I was stunned by that.

Who are we kidding... they're just going to give it to Julie Bowen or Sofia Vergara.

While I'm a huge fan of Alex, I thought Casey Wilson was this season's MVP of Happy Endings. She was fantastic during that entire Pete arc, and there's an episode where she's paired (probably for the first time, I think) in a subplot with Damon Wayans Jr. and they're both really incredible together.

Agreed with everything Alan said about Fischer's performance this year. I really hope Eden Sher could get a bit of attention because her work on The Middle is hilarious and heartbreaking. She is just so lovable. And Toks Olagundoye seemingly perfected how to walk the line just this side of over-the-top.

Krakowski had a great run on 30 Rock, and she did some of her best work in the final season. I'd love to see her win.

Four of my slots go to actresses from NBC shows ... and none of them are from Community. As much as I still love them both (and though I didn't dislike the fourth season as much as some), Alison Brie and Gillian Jacobs just didn't get nearly enough to do. No Cougar Town either - sadly, I just fell too far behind on the show when it moved to TBS.

Got to give my obligatory plug for The Middle and Eden Sher. The show isn't doing anything remarkable or groundbreaking, but I laugh at it as much as Parks and Rec and The New Girl and Sher is terrific.

The Middle is much funnier and endearing than the last two seasons of Modern Family have been.

My list would be Sher, Sher, Sher, Sher .... you get the idea. If you haven't watched enough The Middle this year to be able to put her on your ballot then THAT is the problem. Watch more The Middle. You don't have to recap/review it (although you could drop HIMYM and Modern Family and who'd complain?) but watch it. Sue learned to drive this year and you missed it. She and the Wrestlerettes got into a Cheer-Off with the cheerleaders, and Axel sort of grew up and maybe he graduated and you missed it. Crazy.

Cuthbert was just as great in any other season and it's sad we had to say goodbye to Alex since the show no longer exists. Kirke may have disappeared after the seventh episode but she was the best supporting actress on the show with her work opposite Chris O'Dowd especially in their breakup episode where Kirke showed so much promise and in season 3 without the actress being pregnant should allow her to do much more. Krakowski has been killing it as Jenna forever and once again another character I'm not ready to see go because she was so funny laughing, crying, singing and screaming which usually happened in every episode whether for five minutes or even 30 seconds of comic gold. Mamet is the only likeable character on the show and while her time was not used like in season one it was nice to see the evolvment of her character this season and anything Shoshanna says will make me laugh. White is most known for her stage work and coming to NBC she was the breakout of the show I believe playing the grieving lesbian lawyer Anne and was the highlight of every episode of this short lived comedy. Allison Williams is almost the co-lead of the show but then there are times her screentime is leesned but still she is so great on the show playing the straight role of the show and her being in my personal six really shows how much I love Girls with three of the women getting in like I would have done ten years ago with the women from Sex and the City.